Safety....LAST!

A couple of weeks ago, Steve assembled the new princess bike (with baby seat and a bell) that Kailin got for Christmas. She was thrilled. Colby was ALSO thrilled because that meant that he got her old bike (which is a red, unisex model). It's a "big boy" bike with training wheels.

When Kailin first got on the red bike a couple of years ago, she wanted me right by her side at all times and in all places. She slowly made her way down the sidewalk and then had me guide her as she turned around. It took her a couple of weeks to be comfortable enough to try it on her own. Foolishly, that's what I expected with Colby. FOOL, FOOL, FOOL.

Colby literally leapt onto the bike at the word "go" and never looked back (or actually, a couple of times he DID look back while riding forward and that usually didn't have a very good ending...). At breakneck speeds, and as fast as his little legs would pedal, he set off down the driveway and careened around the corner. Then he was into the grass as he learned about steering. Steve and I agree- he's not allowed to LOOK at the bike without a helmet on his head!

The very day that he started riding, we took the kids on a walk to the parking lot of a defunct grocery store a couple of blocks from us. It allowed them to ride, let us walk (AND talk), and we were able to take the dogs (Peanut is a bit of a turkey around other dogs). Just as he approached the ramp at the end of the sidewalk, Colby looked back to ask a question and Steve and I watched in horror as he went careening right over the curb. We were sure we'd be headed for the ER, but he stayed on the bike, recovered nicely and rode off. Whew! He and Kailin looked adorable riding side by side with her baby on the back of her bike. Too bad I failed to have a camera with me!!

Colby took a few spills (maybe six) that first day. He never shed a tear (although today he did apparently attempt to beat his bike up after he fell off...). Instead, he'd leap up, fling his bike upright, swing his leg over and take off kamikaze style as if making up for lost time. I have to give him credit for tenacity.

We let the kids ride around our cul de sac and then when they're across the street from our house, they have to call over and ask permission to cross. Steve and I were out doing some gardening last week and then he and Kailin made a run to the recycling center with some debris. I heard Colby call out to me to cross him and I looked up and saw the picture above. When I got him safely across the street, I chuckled and told him we needed to fix his helmet because he had put it on backwards. He said, "No I don't! Daddy did it!" Ha! Safety backwards is better than no safety at all?!

I've tried more than once to get a good picture of him on his bike, but I keep getting pictures of the back of him. It's kind of fitting - that's pretty much how we see him most often these days!

Why is that boy's name Pizza?

Due to our craptastic weather today (sleet/hail/snow/repeat - in APRIL), I had the boys watching "Return to Neverland" this morning on Disney. We were maybe 2/3 of the way through the movie when Dawson asked, "Why is that boy named Pizza?" Pizza? Pizza?? Then Colby yelled, "Not Pizza!!! It's PITA!!!!" Ahhhhh.....Peter with a british accent!! I had a good chuckle over that one!

Underwear off?....................Or on?

I can't let this one escape without proper documentation. I just can't.

EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. when Colby goes upstairs to put his jammies on, he will yell down to us "Undawehw off?" and then almost as an afterthought, "owe....on?" It's ALWAYS "underwear on" at night. We've said, times too numerable to count, "Always underwear on at night. Always underwear off in the morning." When he invariably yells down the stairs, we call back "what do YOU think?" and almost always he says "underwehw off?" and then "Oh!" as if it's a revelation when we give him the (apparently startling) news that it's "underwear on." Wonder if he'll still be yelling down to us when he's a teenager....time will tell!

Cow do

Cow do. Or perhaps, but I hope not, Cow doo. I'm not sure what the cows do - or where they doo, but I do know that Colby's pronunciation of his brother's name sounds a whole lot more like "cow do" than it does "Carter". I've been meaning to document that for some time and I also figured that a general update would be a good idea since it's been a few months.

The truth is that I don't really have an update at the moment. We are plugging along with our paperwork and are now anxiously awaiting notification to come to USCIS (immigration) and be fingerprinted so that they can approve us. That's our last hurdle stateside and then everything will be sent to China and we'll begin the long wait to get our official letter of acceptance, followed by our travel approval. We're guessing November for travel at this point, but it's really only a guess.

Sometime after our paperwork actually goes to China we'll request an update on Carter and hopefully get some updated measurements and maybe even a picture. You can bet that I'll share that as soon as I have it in my hot little hands!

Grammy Bea went to Heaven

My grandma died on Sunday morning. It was expected yet sudden - she went from living on her own to gone in just a few days over a month.

I've been thinking a lot about her life this week - there are so many thoughts are running through my head.

Grandma led a remarkable life when you stop to think about it. In her lifetime, she went from a time when her father plowed the fields with a horse and plow to a time with cars for the elite to a time when nearly everyone owns a car - and sometimes more than one...from a time when you worked your own land to put your own food on the table and very few things were purchased in the store to a time when literally anything and everything is available at the store at a fairly reasonable (subjective, I know) price and very few people are directly connected to the food they eat. These times that we consider lean, and I am not arguing for a moment that these are not very rough times for many, many people, are still the land of plenty compared to rationing and sharing what's left of a squirrel with your husband after your children have finished their meals. Going to the show when grandma was young was an EVENT. We have hundreds of movies on demand at the touch of a button. We've 'come a long way' since Grandma was born, but looking back at her life reminds me to take more stock in the things that really matter - to take more time for my family and that the things in life that matter most haven't 'come a long way' and are mostly free for the taking if we take the time to do so.

When she was young, she sure wasn't one to sit back and watch while life passed her by. She was far too busy with her brothers seeing what every plant in the pasture tasted like (I'm kind of surprised one of them didn't poison themselves, to be honest!), or seeing which of them could hang on to the electric fence longest before letting go when that invention came along. She learned to drive long before she was legally allowed and worked in a bomb factory during the war. She loved to spend time up in the air in little puddle jumper airplanes; probably long before they were really safe. Even after Grandpa was gone, sorry was the animal who thought he'd get a meal in Grandma's garden. She'd poke the .22 out the window and take care of it. She had the cops visit her once with a report of a gunshot. When the little old woman answered the door they apologized for the intrusion and went on down the road to investigate. I know grandma laughed that day, and I laugh every time I think of that story. She sure wasn't a "woman of her time" in many respects and it left her with lots and lots of stories to tell later in life. We heard them again and again (and again), but now I take comfort in recounting them and in realizing just how many adventures she had.

I'm going to miss my grandma a lot - but she spent a lot of time with us when we were growing up and I have lots and lots of memories to draw on when I miss her most. She loved to take us down to a little creek or to the lake near her house to poke in the water with sticks - to wade and explore nature. She let us keep tiny fish in a coffee can, and tied a thread around a grasshopper so we could take it for a walk. Grandma was always keen to let us clean out her birdbath with a whisk broom (not sure who got the better end of that bargain), sew on her sewing machine, or help her make a pie. I credit my grandma with starting my love of gardening and of feeling dirt in my hands - her garden was immense when we were young. She made the best pickles ever and her grape juice was a family favorite. She sewed us dresses and pajamas and often let us pick out the pattern and even the fabric! Easter Peeps (labeled with our names so that there could be NO fighting) were a tradition and something we looked forward to every year. Sometimes they were pink bunnies and sometimes they were yellow chicks, but there were always Peeps when Easter rolled around.

There are so many more stories about my grandma that I want to write down. My kids didn't know her nearly long enough to have heard (and remember) them all, and there's some good stuff there. She was so very very proud of her 'perfect grandchildren' and even prouder of her great-grandchildren. She doted on them something fierce and if it's even possible, they were even more perfect in her eyes than we grandchildren were. I'm going to miss Grandma terribly, but I know that when we eat our Easter Peeps this year, I'm going to think of her and smile.